SEW COOL: The Binghamton University Alumni Association collected more than 100 campus-related T-shirts and turned them into five unique commemorative quilts. First displayed at Homecoming 2003, the quilts now hang in various locations around campus.

In 2002, Jordan Fox found himself with a closet full of T-shirts from his alma mater that he no longer wore, but he didn't want to throw away. Realizing there had to be other alumni who felt the same way about their well-worn mementos, the recent Binghamton University graduate and Homecoming Committee member proposed a novel use for them -- a Homecoming quilt.

"Throughout 2002 we advertised in our alumni publications and on our website that we were collecting these shirts," says Rose Bacmanski Frierman, Binghamton's senior associate director of alumni and parent relations. "They came in from all over the country -- and from quite a range of class years." More than 50 alumni donated more than 100 T-shirts advertising a variety of campus organizations and events, from the University radio station to theater productions to reunion weekends to athletics teams. The alumni association hung the T-shirts on clotheslines at the 2002 homecoming before stitching them together.

"Our original idea was to have alumni office staff make the quilts," Frierman says, "but we received too many T-shirts and the task became overwhelming." A quilter herself, Frierman commissioned a friend, Pat Gleeson, to create what turned out to be five quilts. They debuted at Homecoming this past October, hanging from quilt frames outside during the afternoon barbecue. The Alumni Association plans to display them around campus.

"The quilts are a visual way of demonstrating all that happens on our campus, from athletics to cultural and religious organizations," Frierman says. "It takes all these different organizations to come together to make up the whole that is Binghamton University."

© 2004 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education; reprinted with permission from the January 2004 CASE Currents. All rights reserved. About the Author: Tracey Palmer is a freelance writer based in Norwell, Mass.